Bible Strands
Exodus 22:25
If you lend money to one of My people among you who is poor, you must not act as a creditor to him; you are not to charge him interest.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks to the Israelite assembly through Moses during the wilderness covenant ratification, directly following a warning against oppressing widows and orphans.
The words — כֶּסֶף (kesef) translates as "money" and תַּלְוֶה (talveh) as "you will lend," establishing the specific financial transaction the command regulates.
The thread — The ban on charging interest to fellow Israelites recurs in Deuteronomy 23:19 and Psalm 15:5, while Leviticus 25:35 addresses the parallel duty of sustaining a destitute countryman.
Why it lands — The text commands lenders to waive profit from the vulnerable, requiring readers to treat credit as a tool for survival rather than a revenue stream.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 25:35 Now if your countryman becomes destitute and cannot support himself among you, then you are to help him as you would a foreigner or stranger, so that he can continue to live among you.
- Psalms 15:5 who lends his money without interest and refuses a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.
- Deuteronomy 23:19 Do not charge your brother interest on money, food, or any other type of loan.
- Ezekiel 18:8 He does not engage in usury or take excess interest, but he withholds his hand from iniquity and executes true justice between men.
- Nehemiah 5:7 and after serious thought I rebuked the nobles and officials, saying, “You are exacting usury from your own brothers!” So I called a large assembly against them
- Proverbs 28:8 He who increases his wealth by interest and usury lays it up for one who is kind to the poor.
- Ezekiel 18:17 He withholds his hand from harming the poor and takes no interest or usury. He keeps My ordinances and follows My statutes. Such a man will not die for his father’s iniquity. He will surely live.
- 2 Kings 4:1 Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. And now his creditor is coming to take my two children as his slaves!”
- 2 Kings 4:7 She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt. Then you and your sons can live on the remainder.”
- Nehemiah 5:2 Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous. We must get grain in order to eat and stay alive.”